IPL 4 Recap: Tournament Rocks Sin City!

IPL 4 Recap: Tournament Rocks Sin City!

IPL 4 is in the books, and already ranks as an incredible tournament. Seven American teams – Team SoloMid, Counter Logic Gaming, Curse Gaming, v8 eSports, Monomaniac eSports, Epik, and Dignitas -- met at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, along with Europe’s Against All Authority to make it an even eight. The double-elimination tournament lasted over three days, with a $50,000 prize pool at stake!

From the beginning, the tournament defied expectations: marked by surprise upsets and innovative game play. Among the biggest shockers was Monomaniac eSports, a comparative unknown who defeated established powerhouses like Curse and aAa, and came close to knocking Dignitas into the lower bracket. They finished in fourth place and look to make more noise in tournaments to come. Conversely, Against All Authority – a team expected to contend for the championship – failed to win a single game and exited the tournament early.

Dignitas, for its part, introduced an innovative new team composition that scored them some big wins. Lulu and Soraka occupied solo lane positions, leaving the remaining three champions to provide a nearly unstoppable combo. The tactic took them to the Lower Bracket Finals and a third-place finish overall.

The championship, however, belonged to team SoloMid. After marching undefeated for the first two days, they found themselves facing down Counter Logic Gaming in the final round. CLG took a torturous route to the finals through the lower bracket – including a win over Dignitas, who beat them earlier in the tournament – and was in for a difficult fight against the SoloMid powerhouse. To everyone’s surprise, they took the first match two games to none, handing TSM their first loss and prompting a second round of matches in the finals. Their hopes for an upset were crushed, however, as SoloMid responded to the challenge with a demonstrable 2-0 victory. They claimed the grand prize of $25,000 and topped a truly epic weekend of gaming.

If you missed any of the key matches, you can view them all in their entirety below: